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7.18.2007

Channel 8 is whipping our arse with the Troy Dungan send off as he retires (kinda) at the age of 70.

Over the last couple of days, his "Greatest Weather Moments" have been appearing in various publications and the radio. His number one moment is when the "Fort Worth tornado" hit downtown. Troy, buddy, I was watching you that night. You had no clue.

Hey, I like the guy. He's hard not to like. Although I think all local weatherman are spares (I could do that - remember my prediction two weeks ago about the rains being over? Spot on, bruther), he had no idea what was going on the night the storm hit. Moments before downtown was beat apart, Troy was tracking a storm in northern Tarrant County on radar. Yep. it was a heck of a storm, moving from I-35/Western Center Boulevard due east over Haltom City, North Richland Hills and into Colleyville.

Then the tornado hit. It was an awkward moment on TV because someone told him about it out loud near the stage. He was confused but said something "big" was happening over downtown Fort Worth. (Yeah, he gave no warning of the tornado but I don't blame him for that - a tornado touching down isn't something you can predict.) But, as I watched the screen, downtown Fort Worth was now the hot spot. With the radar behind him, Troy pointed to what he thought was the tornado. But he was completely confused. He kept pointing time and time again to a storm north of downtown over Saginaw. It wasn't even close to downtown. If the video existed, you would not believe what you saw. The man looked like he had never seen a map of Tarrant County before.

I've talked to one guy who saw the same thing I did, and his reaction was exactly the same. You'll never see a video of it. It's buried in the vault of WFAA.

I don't know why this has stuck with all these years. My first and only wife (yep, I'll admit to only one) used to cringe whenever she noticed I was looking at at a Troy Dungan Billboard or Troy Dungan Commercial. She knew my rant was coming. "You have got to let that go!" she told me.

I've always said that his bow tie was too tight. Once a long time ago, I saw him at Greenville Bar & Grille and a fan(yes, he actually had a fan) wanted a picture with him and so he stood by the guy while someone took their picture and he stood on his tip toes and leaned toward the camera. Small man complex.

I was in that area and watching the sky. Even from the ground it seemed the tornado would drop in the northern area. There were two areas of dramatic rotation. The first rotation was lowering to the north, where Troy was focused. That another rotation developed more quickly and immediately into a tornado to the south (downtown area) just made the weather guys (not just Troy) look bad. Someone far north of downtown was in fact killed by a hailstone. It did not materialize into a full tornado. Sort of like if a reporter is reporting at an icy bridge, and off camera, on another icy road, an accident happens. Does not mean they were wrong in reporting from the bridge, nor wrong in being "late to the party" regarding an accident that happens nearby and suddenly.